1After these things, someone told Joseph, "Look, your father is sick." So he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2Someone told Jacob, "Look, your son Joseph is coming to you." Then Israel gathered his strength and sat up on the bed.
3Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and he blessed me."
4"He said to me, 'Look, I will make you fruitful and give you many children. I will make you into a great crowd of people. And I will give this land to your children after you, to belong to them for ever.'"
5"And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. They shall be mine, just like Reuben and Simeon."
6"But the children you father after them shall be yours. In the land they receive, they shall be counted under the names of their brothers."
7"As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan, on the road, while there was still a little way to go to Ephrath. I buried her there on the road to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem."
8Then Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"
9Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place." And he said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them."
10Now Israel's eyes were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them close to him, and he kissed them and put his arms round them.
11Israel said to Joseph, "I never thought I would see your face again. And look, God has let me see your children too."
12Then Joseph took them from between his knees, and he bowed with his face to the ground.
13Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them close to him.
14But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head. He crossed his hands on purpose, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15Then he blessed Joseph and said, "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,"
16"the Angel who saved me from all evil, may he bless the boys. Let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. And let them grow into a great crowd in the middle of the earth."
17When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him. He took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
18Joseph said to his father, "Not this way, my father. This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head."
19But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his children shall become a great crowd of nations."
20So he blessed them that day, saying, "By you Israel shall bless, saying, 'God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.'" And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21Then Israel said to Joseph, "Look, I am dying. But God will be with you, and will bring you back to the land of your fathers."
22"And I have given you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."